Headquartered in London, Ada Ventures has recently secured €30.6 million funding led by British Business Bank’s (BBB) Enterprise Capital Funds’ programme as its cornerstone investor.
Other investors include US-based Bluesky Capital, Dubai’s Rasmala, London’s Atomico and Inovia Capital, and individuals such as Transferwise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus and City stalwart Dame Cilla Snowball.
For the uninitiated, Ada Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in overlooked founders and markets. Inspired by Ada Lovelace, the computer science pioneer in the 19th century, the company wants to make venture capital easily accessible to the best talent in Europe regardless of gender, race, or other factors.
There is also ‘Ada Scouts,’ a network of scouts that has largely already been built, who are positioned to bring in opportunities in line with the firm’s investment strategy.
The VC firm is planning to focus on globally significant problems that have been overlooked by VC’s like aging populations, women, children, and teenagers. In this regard, Ada will invest in 30 startups in sectors like healthcare, consumer, and the future of work. To date, Ada has made around seven investments.
Francesca Warner, the founding partner, said:
Having worked in Venture for the last four years, and through co-founding Diversity VC, I’ve seen how structurally narrowly-focused the industry is, investing in the same founders building products and services for the same customers. This is a huge, missed opportunity. Ada Ventures is here to change that. We’ve redesigned our funnel of opportunities with Ada’s scouts to give us wide exposure to founders who come from diverse backgrounds and who are solving some of the world’s most significant problems, problems that have been overlooked by the current crop of founders and VCs.
Main image credits: Ada Ventures
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